career was distinguished by the sentiments and principles inherited from his father, the first Lord Chatham, and his great abilities gave him from the outset a prominent place in Parliament. On the 12th of January, 1784, before he was five-and-twenty years of age, he took his seat in the House of Commons, as Chancellor of the Exchequer; and never did a more arduous struggle await a minister. The opposition, led by the impetuous energy of Fox, aided by the experience, influence and admirable temper of Lord North, possessed at that time a large majority in the lower House, and they treated with the utmost scorn this attempt of a young man of four-and-twenty to disposses them of the government. But it was soon evident that Pitt's transcendent talents were equal to the task.. Invincible in resolution, cool in danger, fertile in resource, powerful in debate, and possessed of a moral courage which nothing could overcome, Pitt exhibited a combination of great qualities which, for political contest, was never excelled; he successfully withstood the most formidable parliamentary majority which had appeared in England since the days of Cromwell, and ultimately remained victorious in the struggle.

Mr. Burke was the leader of a third party composed of the old Whigs who supported the principles of the English, but opposed those of the French, Revolution. This celebrated man had long stood side by side with Mr. Fox in the opposition, but on the breaking out of the French Revolution, he took part with the government. With great political sagacity he exerted his talents to oppose the levelling principles which that convulsion introduced; and his work on that subject produced a greater. impression on the public mind than, perhaps, any other book which has yet appeared in the world. It abounds in eloquent passages and profound wisdom; but vast as was its influence, and unrivalled as was its reputation, its value was not fully understood till the progress of events demonstrated the justice of its principles. The division on this vital question for ever alienated these two illustrious men from each other, and drew tears from both of them in the House of Commons where it took place: a striking token of the effects which the Revolution, out of its immediate sphere, produced on the charities of private life, and of the variance which it occasioned in the bosom of families and between friendships that "had stood the strain of a whole life."

Austria was the most formidable rival of the French Republic on the continent of Europe. This great empire, containing at the time nearly twenty millions of inhabitants, and having a revenue of ninety millions of florins, held the richest and most fertile districts of Europe among its provinces. The possession of the Low Countries gave Austria an advanced post immediately in contact with the French frontier, while the mountains of the Tyrol formed a vast fortress, garrisoned by an attached and warlike people, and placed at a salient angle between Germany and Italy. Her armies, numerous and highly disciplined, had acquired great renown in the wars of Maria Theresa and maintained a creditable position, under Daun and Laudohn, in the scientific campaigns with the Great Frederic. Her government, nominally a monarchy, but really an oligarchy in the hands of the great nobies, possessed all that firmness and tenacity of purpose for which aristocratic powers have always been distinguished, and which, under unparalleled difficulties and disasters, at last hrought her successfully through the long struggle in which she was soon afterward engaged. The Austrian forces, at the commencement of the

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war, amounted to two hundred and forty thousand infantry, thirty-five thousand cavalry, and one hundred thousand artillery; while the extent of the empire and the warlike disposition of the inhabitants furnished inexhaustible resources for the maintenance of the contest.

The military strength of Prussia, raised to the highest pitch of which its resources would admit, by the genius of the great Frederic, rendered this once inconsiderable kingdom a first-rate power on the Continent. Its army, one hundred and sixty thousand strong, including thirty-five thousand cavalry, was in the best state of discipline and equipment; and this force, considerable as it was, formed but a small part of the strength of the kingdom. By an admirable system of organization, the whole of the Prussian youth were compelled to serve a limited number of years in the army, so that not only was a taste for military habits universally diffused, but the country always possessed an immense reserve of experienced troops who might in any emergency be called to its defence. The states which composed the Prussian monarchy were by no means so coherent as those of the Austrian dominions. Nature had traced out for them no limits like the Rhine, the Alps or the Pyrenees, to designate their boundaries; no great rivers or mountain chains protected their frontiers; and few fortified towns guarded them from the incursions of the military nations by which they were environed. Their surface consisted of fourteen thousand square leagues, and their population amounted to nearly eight millions, composed of different races, professing different creeds and speaking different languages. Toward Russia and Austrian Poland, a frontier of two hundred leagues was destitute of places of defence; Silesia, alone, enjoyed the double advantage of three lines of fortresses and the strongest natural barriers. The national security rested entirely on the army and the courage of the inhabitants. The government was a military despotism, and the liberty of the press was unknown; nevertheless, the public administration was tempered by the wisdom and beneficence of its state-policy. In no country of Europe were private rights more thoroughly respected, or justice more rigidly observed, than in the courts and domestic government of Prussia.

The immense Empire of Russia-comprehending nearly half of Europe and Asia, backed by inaccessible regions of frost, secured from invasion by the extent of its surface and the severity of its climate, inhabited by a patient and indomitable race who were ever ready to exchange the luxuries and adventure of the south for the hardships and monotony of the north-was daily becoming formidable to the liberties of Europe. The infantry of Russia had long been celebrated for its immovable firmness; and the cavalry, though inferior to its present state of discipline and equipment, was inured to service in the war with the Turks, and mounted on a hardy and admirable race of horses. The artillery was more distin guished for the obstinate valor of its men, than for the condition of its guns. The armies were recruited by a certain proportion of conscripts drawn from every hundred of male inhabitants; a mode of supply in a large and rapidly increasing population, that was not easily exhausted. The entire force in 1792 amounted to two hundred thousand men, exclusive of the youth of the military colonies, and of the well-known Cossacks of the Don. This irregular force, composed of the pastoral tribes in the southern provinces of the Empire, was a very slight expense to the government: it was necessary only to issue an order for a certain number of these

hardy bands to take the field, and crowds of active young men appeared, equipped at their own cost, mounted on small but indefatigable horses, and ready to undergo all the hardships of war. Gifted with the individual intelligence which belongs to the pastoral and savage character, and yet subjected to a certain degree of discipline, they were the best light troops in the world, and were more formidable to a retreating army than the bravest of French or Russian dragoons. The population of Russia, in Europe alone, was nearly thirty-five millions, and was increasing at a rate which doubled its numbers in forty years: this supply of inhabitants with the other resources of the Empire, enabled her to bear a distinguished part in the approaching conflict.

Sweden was too remote from the scene of European strife to have much weight in the political scale. She had recently, however, concluded a glorious war with her powerful neighbor, Russia; for her arms, in alliance with the arms of Turkey, had taken the Russian forces by surprise, and Gustavus, her king, extricating himself by a desperate exertion of valor from a perilous situation, had destroyed the Russian fleet and gained a great victory so near to St. Petersburg that the sound of his cannon was heard in the palace of the empress. Catherine hastened to be rid of the Swedish war by offering advantageous terms to her brave antagonist, and flattered him to accept them by representing that the efforts of all sovereigns should now be directed toward resisting the progress of the French Revolution and that he alone was worthy to head the enterprise.

Placed on the other extremity of the Russian dominions, the forces of Turkey were still less capable of affecting the balance of European power: her troops, too, though formidable among their native defences to an invading army, were comparatively inefficient, when removed from their own fields and brought into contact with the better disciplined armies of other European states.

The political importance of Italy had sunk almost as low as that of Turkey. Inhabiting the finest country in Europe-a country blessed with the richest plains and most fruitful mountains, defended from inva sion by the encircling sea and the frozen Alps, venerated also from the recollections of ancient greatness and from its containing the cradle of modern freedom-the people of Italy were yet as dust in the scale of nations.

The kingdom of Piedmont, situated on the frontiers of Italy, partook more of the character of its northern than its southern neighbors. Its soldiers, drawn chiefly from the mountains of Savoy, Liguria, or the maritime Alps, were brave, docile and enterprising, and, under Victor Amadeus, had risen to the highest distinction in the beginning of the 18th century. The regular army amounted to thirty thousand infantry and three thousand five hundred cavalry; and the government could, in addition to this, summon to its support fifteen thousand militia who, in defending their mountain passes, rivalled the best troops in Europe. They were chiefly employed during the war in guarding fortresses; and the number of these, joined to the natural strength of the country and its position important as holding the keys of the great passes of the Alps, gave this state a degree of military consequence beyond what could have been anticipated from its mere physical strength.

Sunk in obscure marshes, crushed by the naval supremacy of England, and cooped up in a corner of Europe, Holland had become a compara

tively insignificant power. Its army still consisted of forty thousand men and its fortified towns and means of inundation showed the same ability of defence as had formerly been exerted; but the resolution of the people was far inferior to the strength of their position.

The peasantry of Switzerland, on the other hand, cradled in snowy mountains, tilling a sterile soil and habituated to hardships, exhibited at this time the same characteristics which have always rendered them cele. brated in European wars. Their lives were as simple, their courage as undaunted and their patriotism as warm as were those of their ancestors who fell at Morat or Morgarten: but as their troops did not exceed thirtyeight thousand in number, they could take little active part in the great contests that agitated the plains of Europe.

The people of the Spanish Peninsula were able to assume a more distinguished place in the strife for European freedom. This singular and mixed race, united to the tenacity of purpose which marked the Gothic, the fiery enterprise that characterized the Moorish blood: centuries of almost unbroken repose had neither extinguished the one nor abated the other; and Napoleon, at a later day, erroneously judged the temper of her people when he measured it by the inglorious reigns of the Bourbon dynasty. Her national strength had indeed declined, by reason of the accumulation of estates in the hands of noble families who were degenerated by long-continued intermarriages, and of the predominant influence of the Catholic priesthood: but the courage and prowess of her peasantry were unimpaired and her ability to repel invasion was signally proved in many instances during the war. The nominal military strength of Spain was one hundred and forty thousand men; but this force was far from being effective; and in the first campaigns she was not able to muster eighty thousand combatants.

The forces of France destined to contend with this immense aggregate of military strength, were far from being considerable at the commencement of the struggle. The infantry consisted of one hundred and sixty thousand men, the cavalry of thirty-five thousand, and the artillery of ten thousand. During the first stormy period of the Revolution, the discipline of the troops had declined; and the custom of each man's judging for himself had introduced into the army a degree of license wholly inconsistent with military subordination. These defects, however, were speedily remedied under the iron rule of the Convention.

In contemplation of the approaching contest, a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, was concluded on the 7th of February, 1792, between Sweden and Austria; but, it seemed that Providence was preparing a new race of actors for the mighty scenes now to be performed; for Leopold of Austria died on the 1st of March following; and on the 16th of the same month, Gustavus was assassinated at a masked ball.

Leopold was succeeded by his son Francis, then but twenty-four years of age, whose reign was the most eventful, the most disastrous, and ultimately the most glorious in the Austrian annals. His first measures were popular and judicious; Kaunitz was continued as prime-minister, and with him were associated in the cabinet, Marshal Lascy and Count Francis Colloredo. He suppressed those articles in the journals which loaded him with praise, observing, "It is by my future conduct that I am to be judged worthy of praise or blame." When the list of pensioners was submitted to his inspection, he erased the name of his mother,

saying that it was not becoming for her to be dependent on the bounty of the state.

The

Hitherto, Great Britain had observed a strict neutrality toward France, but the progress of events soon forced her to a change of policy. The 10th of August came; the French throne was overturned; the royal family imprisoned; and the massacres of September stained Paris with blood. In the frenzy of their democratic fury, and intoxicated with success, the Revolutionary party adopted measures incompatible with the peace of other states. A Jacobin club of twelve hundred members was established at Chamberry, in Savoy, and one hundred of its most active individuals were selected as travelling missionaries "armed with the torch of reason and liberty, for the purpose of enlightening the Savoyards on their regeneration and imprescriptible rights." An address was voted by this club to the French Convention as "legislators of the world,” and received by them on the 20th of October, 1792. They ordered it to be translated into the English, Spanish and German languages. The rebellious Savoyards next formed a Convention, in imitation of that of France, and offered to incorporate themselves with the great Republic. French Convention promptly accepted the proffered dominion of Savoy, and united it to the Republic under the name of the Department of Mont Blanc. The seizure of Savoy was followed by that of Nice with its territory, and Monaco; these were styled the Department of the maritime Alps. Italy was the next object of attack, and Piedmont the first point assailed. To facilitate the work, a French fleet cast anchor in the Bay of Genoa, and a Jacobin club was established in that city. Kellerman, on assuming the command of the army of the Alps, informed his soldiers that he "had orders to conquer Rome, and the orders should be obeyed." The French ambassador at Rome was in the mean time so active in urg ing the people to insurrection, that, when proceeding in his carriage to one of his conferences, he was seized by the mob, at whom he had discharged a pistol, and was murdered in the streets. Switzerland, too, and the smaller German principalities, were subjected to insult or sequestration. Finally, on the 19th of November, a decree was unanimously passed by the Convention, which openly placed the French Republic at war with all established governments.

These unprecedented and alarming proceedings, joined to the rapid increase and treasonable language of the Jacobin societies in England, excited a general disquietude in that country; and after some time spent in correspondence with the French government, matters were brought to a crisis by the execution of Louis. As there was now no longer even the shadow of a government in the French capital with which to maintain a diplomatic intercourse, the French minister was notified to quit the British dominions within eight days; and on the 3rd of February, 1793, the French Convention declared war against Great Britain.